Review process of electing EALA members, Govt urged

The government has been advised to review the process of electing East Africa Legislative Assembly members by adding two more seats for the opposition parties to the current one.

The former secretary general of Tanzania Labour Party, Hamad Tao, said the prevailing ratio for parliamentary seats between opposition parties and the ruling CCM is not fair.

Each member state of the EALA has been given nine seats out of which opposition parties in Tanzania have only one, he said adding, that CCM has eight.

Tao said that during the 2010 general elections CCM got 60 percent (in the parliamentary poll), while the opposition had 40 percent of all the votes.

“As you all know the mainland has 40 million people and Zanzibar has 1 million people. Thus in dividing the seats eight are for CCM, whereby five go to CCM-Mainland, three of which are for men and two for women,” he said.

He said the remaining three seats are for CCM-Zanzibar of which two are for men and one for women.

Citing Kenya and Uganda, Tao said the representation is 50/ 50 for all political parties without considering whether it is the ruling party or the opposition.

He however said that by giving one seat to the opposition parties is like regarding the entire arrangement as one for gender discrimination.

Tao said he believes that the government will review the formula in order to increase efficiency in the parliament .